PITTSBURGH — With all the changes in the last week, it’s easy for everyone in orange and black to think they’re on thin ice.

It’s truer for some more than others and everyone is in a holding pattern until the Flyers replace Ron Hextall as general manager. It was pretty clear for pending free agent Wayne Simmonds that the ice was paper thin with Hextall at the helm. Both he and the Flyers wanted to sign an extension, but they couldn’t get close either on term or on the money value.

“Last time I talked to his agent was when we were in L.A. (on Nov. 1) and we weren’t close,” Hextall said Friday. “I don’t know how that was gonna play out. Sometimes you’ve got to have a deadline for those things. Whether it would have been the trade deadline or the end of the year, June 30, I don’t know how that would have played out. There was a comfort level for us and a comfort level for them. We were a ways apart.”

Simmonds, 30, is in the last year of a six-year, $23.85 million contract that was extremely team-friendly. Since signing the deal in 2012 he has essentially averaged 30 goals per year while also playing a large role in the Flyers’ leadership group.

He’s coming off core muscle surgery — similar to the procedures that Nolan Patrick, Claude Giroux and Shayne Gostisbehere have gone through — and has averaged a little more than half a point per game this season despite what is usually extended recovery time. He’s slightly below his career points-per-game average and hasn’t had one in his last three games, although he had a huge impact on the Flyers’ 4-2 win over the Pittsburgh Penguins Saturday night.

Less than two minutes into the game he got Jamie Oleksiak to oblige in a fight with the Penguins up a goal. The Flyers have faltered with adversity recently and Simmonds figured if he could drop the gloves with someone five inches taller and 70 pounds heavier, he might be able to spark something in the other direction and he was right.

“Slow start again for us,” Simmonds said. “Obviously they scored first shift. Just went up and I asked him immediately and I was happy he said, ‘yeah.’ Got the boys going, (Travis Konecny) went out and scored and from there I thought we did a pretty good job. (Anthony Stolarz) played amazing, made some huge saves for us. That was a good victory for us.”

“That’s glue,” coach Dave Hakstol said in reference to Simmonds’ fight. “That’s the glue that brings things together and keeps things tight. That says a lot about the group.”

Because he plays a power-forward game that comes with wear and tear, it’s easy to see why Simmonds might be approaching a decline in his career. And if that’s true, then how much is he worth in his next contract? Probably not as much as he's asking, which neither he or his agent will broach.

Last season Simmonds played through a torn pelvic ligament, pulled groin, broken teeth, broken ankle, torn thumb ligament and torn abdomen. He still scored 24 goals. What he’s done since coming to Philadelphia in the summer of 2011 will leave a permanent legacy with the franchise.

He embodies every bit of the Broad St. Bullies mentality the Flyers have celebrated for so long and he thinks he has plenty more in the tank.

“Everyone gets injured once in a while, but to say that my body is wearing down or I’m old or anything of that nature I think is quite frankly stupid,” Simmonds said back at the start of the season. “I’ve missed 21 games in 10 years. Go through the list of players. How many guys have missed that little time?”

Simmonds has the scars to prove that few can claim what he can. His face looks like Gerry Cheevers’ mask without the mask. The remnants of stitches, sticks, pucks and punches show he’s willing to go on as long as his body will let him, but he said last Monday in the wake of Hextall’s firing that he’s unsure what a new regime will mean for his future.

The Flyers interviewed Chuck Fletcher and Bill Zito this weekend as potential replacements for Hextall and sources say that Fletcher is the favorite to get the job.

It’s unclear whether either one would be more favorable to re-signing Simmonds in Philadelphia but considering how far apart Simmonds’ agent and Hextall were in negotiations, any regime change might be a positive in that regard.

As he has his whole career in Philadelphia, Simmonds showed Saturday that he’s willing to do what it takes to win even if it doesn’t mean putting the puck in the net. It will be interesting to see if he gets compensated for it after this season.

“You gotta respect that. Good for Oleksiak in fighting him, too,” Dale Weise said. “That kind of sets the tone for our team. They come out and score, he comes back with that fight and it kind of energizes the whole bench there.”